Barely A Whisper
by Lady Coyne
Summary: Santana finds herself in close contact with the one girl she never thought she would care about, let alone defend. But when an ancient curse threatens to tear their lives apart, it quickly becomes the least of her worries. ON HIATUS
1. Prologue

Santana sighed as she spotted the tiny brunette at her locker, arms folded sadly across her chest. She took a few steps forward toward her, then turned around and began to take languid steps in the other direction. She stopped, however, and found herself walking down the hall to Rachel once more, simply because that tiny _feeling _kept pulsating through her body and she couldn't take it any longer.

One step forward, two steps forward. She sighed as the _feeling_ started to make her head throb again. Three steps forward. Santana grabbed hold of the band restraining her hair in a tight and uncomfortable ponytail, trying not to show any pain in the carefully nonchalant expression on her face. She managed the last step over to Rachel and stood in front of her, tightly clenching her jaw.

"Berry." She muttered, a hint of annoyance in her voice. The shorter girl remained unmoving, seemingly content with allowing her head to be bent so low and her fingernails to be digging so deep into the sleeves of her hoodie.

"Berry," Santana tried again, even going so far as to extend a hand in the general direction of the girl's face. Her sense caught up to her halfway-there, causing the hand to fall limply back down to her hip. Rachel sniffled slightly and raised her head, brown curls falling to her chest. Santana almost winced at the pain in the brunette's red-rimmed eyes, but then remembered her own pain and firmly bit down on her lip. That _feeling_ was relentless.

"I don't know why you're acting like this. And more than that, I'm surprised I even care," Santana whispered, watching Rachel's eyes flicker to the ground for a second.

"Just leave me alone, Santana." Rachel nervously licked her lip and turned on her heel, hurriedly starting to walk through the empty corridor.

"Berry," Santana hissed sharply, stretching a tan hand out to grab onto Rachel's elbow. The hand took hold of nothing and Rachel desperately changed her pace, practically running to the school entrance and darting outside.

Santana stared after her and then looked back down at her hand; she could have sworn that it had just passed through Rachel's elbow as if the brunette's arm was transparent.

"The fuck?" She mumbled.


	2. Dreaming Is Nursed In Darkness

Santana couldn't pinpoint exactly when it had started. Somewhere along the road after Regionals, Rachel walked into school wearing unmemorable hoodies, socialized less, and sat alone during Glee. The other glee members had brushed it off as the brunette still being hung up with her recent break up with Finn. Santana, however, had seen Rachel after enough breakups to know that this time was different. Rachel wasn't even attempting to be standoffish; it was more as if she was trying to stay out of sight from everyone. It was as though she were trying to hide herself in plain sight. And for some reason, that irked Santana. And that _feeling_ seemed to grow because of it.

Just like Rachel's sudden uncharacteristic behavior, Santana also couldn't pinpoint when the _feeling_ had first begun. All she knew is whenever she was in the vicinity of the shorter girl or even thinking about her, her forehead would begin to throb so vehemently that she felt as if every move she made was the last one she would ever make. It's not like Santana thought about Rachel all that often or stalked her all over town, but she definitely tried to steer clear of Rachel just so that _feeling_ would succumb.

The Latina had spent several weeks like that; staying away from Rachel as much as she possibly could and trying not to focus on the reasons why she was doing it. But, as always, there came a hitch with her self-proclaimed brilliant plan. Staying away from Rachel only seemed to aggravate the _feeling_ even more, driving her to hit her head against the wall in exasperation at the pain she didn't know how to fix. Santana was almost at her wits end and didn't know what to do to relieve the tension going on in her head.

So she made the best choice out of three and decided to confront Rachel on her unusual behavior. What she found wasn't exactly what she was looking for, and left her even longer in the dark. Santana's hand had passed through Rachel's elbow as if it wasn't even there; as if Rachel didn't even exist and was just a figment of her imagination.

Santana went home that afternoon from Cheerios practice with a throbbing _feeling_-ache and a serious dose of unprescribed confusion. She spent hours laying still on her bed, ignoring her buzzing cellphone and thinking over exactly what had happened. Eventually, she called it an early night and shut her eyes to the natural darkness that had fallen around her, deciding not to think any longer about it.

That doesn't explain how she ended up at Rachel Berry's house in the middle of the night, but it's pretty close.

Santana chucked another rock at the window, becoming impatient. Santana saw a light finally turn on amidst the steady stream of rocks and saw a shadow appear against the blinds as Rachel threw open the window.

"Santana?" She whispered into the cold night air, shivering slightly.

"Berry," Santana hissed, her fingers clutching another rock so tightly that she was surprised they hadn't broken yet. The _feeling_ crept up her arm like a mosquito ready to bite.

"What are you doing here?" The other girl yawned, looking back into the room as if checking to make sure her dads weren't aware of the conversation.

"Just having a friendly chat at 12 in the morning," Santana said sarcastically, moving toward the tree, "Now move back so I can get in."

"What are you-" Rachel leaped backwards as Santana climbed up the tree and into the girl's house in less than three seconds.

"Explain, Berry. Now." Santana leveled her with a glare, crossing her arms stubbornly across her chest.

"I honestly don't know what you're talking about," Rachel mumbled to the floor.

Santana sighed, "Okay, Berry. If you want to play it this way, that's fine with me. Just know that I-"

Rachel was gone. One minute she had been standing there, eyes glued to the floor. The next, her body had completely vanished in thin air.

Santana's eyes widened and her mouth dropped a couple inches. She was still in shock when Rachel suddenly appeared again, eyes still on the floor. It was as if she hadn't left.

"What the-" Santana broke off, her wide-eyed gaze focused entirely on the sullen-looking brunette.

Rachel looked up, saw her flabbergasted expression, and visibly gulped. "I think you should go, Santana."

"No! What the-the fuck just happened, Berry?" Santana's eyebrows furrowed and she continued looking at Rachel as if she was going to suddenly jump up and do the hokey-pokey in Japanese.

"Just go." Rachel sounded tired and scared and she took a few steps toward Santana, who stepped back. The Latina gave her one more frightened appraisal and climbed back down the tree, landing on the ground with a loud thud. She glanced back up at the small brunette silhouetted in the moonlight and began to run home with a sinking heart. It also didn't help that the _feeling_ had escalated at least a thousand decibels.


	3. Closing The Bodily Eye

By the time Monday rolled around, Santana had managed to convince herself that she was seeing things. Just to solidify her point, she made sure to push Rachel as far away from her mind as possible. Unfortunately for her, that _feeling_ grew even more stubborn and her head was throbbing as if carpenters were hacking at it with chisels.

"San!" The Latina turned around at the call, watching Brittany bounce up to her and link their pinkies.

"I had so much fun at Quinn's. It was nice to catch up with her. I only wish you were there with us. Then it would be like old times, right Sannie?" Santana forced a smile at the bubbly blonde and nodded her head.

"We had a movie marathon and-" Santana's breath caught in her throat as she felt a pair of eyes on her. Turning, she saw Rachel standing a few feet away at her locker, her usually brown eyes a smoldering black. She shivered and shut her eyes tightly for a second, trying to shove any thoughts about Rachel away and tried to focus on what Brittany was saying.

"...And it was amazing! Well, anyway, I gotta get going. So..bye, San!" Brittany gave her a hug and scrambled off to class, leaving Santana to steady herself and hurry into Spanish, taking a seat in the classroom just as the bell rang.

"Okay, class. Get out your homework." Santana tuned Mr. Schue out and let her gaze involuntarily fall on Rachel.

The tiny brunette was sitting just one row away and Santana could tell that her usual enthusiasm about schoolwork was gone because she was just staring sullenly down at her binder, one hand holding up her cheek. Santana stared at her, trying not to let her thoughts drift back to the day before, and her eyes widened as Rachel's form spontaneously disappeared. She was about to open her mouth and say something- what, she didn't know- when Rachel was suddenly back and it was as if it hadn't happened. Just like the night before.

Santana calmed herself and clenched her jaw tightly, looking around to find everyone else already half-asleep in their chairs and obviously not a witness to what had just happened. She sighed and shifted in her seat, willing the clock to go faster so she could just get out of there and away from Rachel and whatever the fuck was going on with her.

When the bell finally rang, Santana slipped out of the class and practically ran down the hallway, bumping into a confused blonde.

"Santana?" Quinn arched an eyebrow, her eyes trained on the Latina who continued racing down the hall like a madwoman.

Santana tucked into the bathroom and held onto the counter top, staring into the mirror. She searched her face, not entirely sure what she was looking for, and clutched a tangle of dark hair in her hands.

"I'm not crazy. I swear, I'm not crazy." She whispered at her reflection, ignoring the little voice in the back of her head pointing out the evidence against that statement. Not feeling Rachel's arm, seeing her disappear not once, but twice..

Releasing a sigh of frustration, she looked up as footsteps sounded from behind her. Two tanned legs strolled in, then two arms, then-

"Berry," Her eyes strained to catch sight of the eyes hidden beneath the girl's long bangs.

Rachel stopped moving, her face the perfect image of a deer caught in headlights.

Santana stepped closer, her hand reaching out to brush along her arm. "I saw that. In class."

A brown eye peeked out from under the bangs for a second, just long enough for the taller girl to notice its dark hue.

"I see that, too. In fact, Berry, I've been seeing a lot of strange things lately, and they all seem to revolve around you. I'm not sure if I even want to know why or if I should try to forget all this."

Rachel opened her mouth and ran her tongue along cracked lips. "You should," She finally croaked.

Santana pressed a warm palm to her forehead and released an exasperated huff of air as the _feeling_ pounded in her head, growing stronger with each beat. "And why is that?"

The tiny brunette seemed even smaller as she hunched in on herself. Santana took another step closer, her body only a miniscule breadth away from Rachel's.

"You can't just say something like that and not back it up. You're Rachel Berry, for Christ's sake."

Rachel suddenly raised her head, dark eyes boring into Santana's. "Sometimes things are better left alone. You don't know anything about me, Santana. And that's how it's meant to be. So," She waved an arm between the two of them, "whatever these confrontations are supposed to be, they're obviously not working."

And with a tightening of the hoodie draped around her thin body, Rachel walked out of the bathroom and to her next class, leaving Santana to stare after her with a fixed scowl on her face.


End file.
